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Last ball pain for Tigers after Brathwaite's Sharjah show

Dubai - Anis Sajan talks about the first T10 tournament in the history of the game as well as performance of his own team Bengal Tigers

The last ball six is the legend associated with the Sharjah Stadium for the last three decades. In 1986, Javed Miandad hit a last ball six to leave millions of Indian fans heartbroken for a Pakistan win and Anis Sajan, a Dubai-based Indian businessman and popularly known as Mr. Cricket, was one of them. It was time for Deja Vu for him when Carlos Brathwaite sent last ball of league match out of the ground to help Punjabi Legends pip Bengal Tigers at the post for a place in the T10 League semifinal place.
Anis, the Bengal Tigers Team Director, felt the same pain when he had to watch his team being eliminated thanks to big-built West Indian's six. In an email interview with Khlaeej Times, he talks about the first T10 tournament in the history of the game as well as performance of his own team Bengal Tigers.
So near yet so far ... how much did the Carlos Brathwaite last ball six hurt? Being an Indian was it like Deja vu?
A: Yes as an Indian, I immediately recollected the Javed Miandad's last-ball match-winning six against India in 1986 at the same venue. Numerous India-Pakistan matches have gone down to the wire but none of the matches had such a telling effect as this one. So, definitely I felt the same pain as I felt around three decades ago.
Having said that, this situation could have been avoided had we won the match against Paktoons, which was in our control. It's like having the game sealed and locked while forgetting the keys back with Paktoonns.
With your first choice players like Sunil Narine and Mustafizur pulling out, did your initial plans get jolted?
A: Yes, it did affect our plans and we had to tweak our strategies as they were our two main bowlers who were going to give us four overs. In fact, we lost one more T20 specialist bowler in Ruman Raees as he too is known to bowl well in the death overs and would have added value to our bowling. Instead of the above key bowlers, we had to go for Marchant De Lange, 16 year old Mujeeb Zadran of Afghanistan and young Aamir Yamin who for me was the find of the tournament.
What went wrong for the team that it had to depend on the other team's performance to advance to semifinals?
A: As I mentioned earlier losing the six main players picked from the first draft was one of the main loss. We lost, Rovman Powell, a hard hitting batsman from the West Indies, who can clear any boundary but I could not complain as I got David Miller instead, who was the main stay of our batting in all our games. So, I can just conclude that when you loose almost half the side from the initial draft, it does affect your overall planning.
What are the gains from the first tournament?
A: The most important gain from the first tournament was my team bonding. I believe our team was the most organised and very well managed across all portfolio. As a franchise our main aim is to make sure the players and families are comfortable so that when they are on ground they can give their 100 percent and I think my team was excellent when it came to management and promotion.
How will you approach the second edition?
A: Honestly there is lot of learning from getting the team right to planning and selecting our frontline players. And the most important is their availability to avoid last minute drop out and have the right fit to execute the winning plan.
Which player you would have wished in your team?
A: I would have been lucky to have my frontline bowlers as bowlers won the game for most of the team and would have preferred to Mustafizur Rahman and Sunil Narine who could also open the innings and give us a blazing start with the bat in the power play overs. We really missed them in our team.
Were you happy with the conduct of the T10 tournament?
A: This was the first ever league in this new format and the initial response was overwhelming as the stadium was full, which made all of us happy and it definitely has a potential to go to the next level. But still lot of improvement is needed which I think will eventually happen.
Do you think only one Indian player in the tournament didn't do good for the event?
A: Well Cricket is like a religion for Indians and more Indian players would have definitely added value to the league.
Your take away from the tournament
A: Youngsters like Aamir Yamin and UAE speedster Naveed winning the second match against Punjab Legends was one of those moments. The experienced players didn't have a great day but the young ones gave their 200 percent and brought us the moment of joy.
Moment (cricket wise) for you in this tournament.
A: UAE speedster yorker to clean bowl Shahid Afridi when he was looking very dangerous and off course innings played by Morgan in the finals will always be special for me.
sports@khaleejtimes.com